GRAPTOLITES OF NEW YORK, PART 1 467 



The first to conaider the graptolites as of animal nature was Wnhh, 

 who described two species as toothed Orthoceratites. This conception 

 of the graptolites was subsequently maintained by Wahlenherg, Schloth- 

 heim and for a time, also by Geinitz and Quenstedt. 



Nilssbn appears to have been the first observer who pointed out the sim- 

 ilarity of tTie structure of the graptolites to that of recent hydrozoans. Beck, 

 Murchison and Portlooh held the same view, Portlock comparing them with 

 Sertularia and Plumularia; while Barrande, who first (in 1850) described 

 exhaustively a whole graptolite fauna, that of Bohemia, disproved fully the 

 relation of the graptolites to the cephalopods. 



As early as 1847, Hall described and finely illustrated (Palaeontology 

 of New York, v.l) one species from the Trenton and 13 species from 

 the Utica and " Hudson river " shales of New York, stating [p. 265] his 

 agreement with the view of Dr Beck, viz that the graptolites are to 

 be compared with Virgularia. In 1849 he announced before the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science [Proc. 1849, p. 351] the occur- 

 rence of 20 species of graptolites in the Lower Siluric rocks, and of three 

 species in the Clinton formation. The latter, together with the genus 

 Dictyonema, have been described and figured in the second volume of the 

 Palaeontology of New York. 



In 1855 Emmons described as new 14 species, from various localities, 

 largely from the shales of Columbia county, N. Y. and of Virginia, and three 

 new genera, Nemagrapsus, Glossograpsus and Staurograpsus, attaching the 

 last designation to a Cambric form, more fully noticed in the present 

 publication. 



When a finely preserved, rich and new fauna of gi-aptolites was dis- 

 covered by the Canadian geologists in the Lower Siluric rocks of Point Levis 

 near Quebec, it was intrusted to Hall for description. In a preliminary pub- 

 lication [1857] 21 new species were announced from these rocks of uncertain 

 stratigraphic position. The same fauna was more fuUy treated, beautifully 

 illustrated by engravings on copper, and numerous new species from the same 



